Obama’s SOTU Speech: Government Unbound

You will not hear the president call for any of the New York-type approaches on Friday, nor offer an admission that Chicago has a bigger gang problem than New York (and the gangs will get their guns one way or another). Rather, he will use the day to push Congress to take a vote on his proposed gun measures, and honor Gabby Giffords, Hadiya Pendleton, and the victims of Aurora, Virginia Tech, Newtown, and all the other mass shooting incidents in recent years.

The biggest deception in the president’s talk last night was the promise that all his new initiatives to “expand and secure the middle class” would not produce a dollar in new deficits. That is about as reassuring as the administration’s pledge that the 2009 stimulus package would keep the unemployment rate from ever reaching 8% (now four years and $6 trillion in deficit spending later, the unemployment rate is still at 7.9%, down from a post-stimulus peak of just over 10%). The $50 billion in infrastructure spending, the new investments in clean energy, the new universal preschool program, the new housing subsidies for new mortgages, the cost of Obamacare for any illegals who become legal under immigration reform will all presumably be financed by new taxes or cuts in other programs.

The new federal spending, or “investments in the nation’s future” as the president prefers to call them, is part and parcel of an approach that sees government intervention as the way to achieve a fairer society. Fairness, or redistribution of wealth and income, is the president’s primary domestic concern. The size of the economic pie and its rate of growth have always seemed less of a concern.

Every recent public-opinion poll has suggested that the nation is more focused on the stagnating economy than on gun control, immigration, or climate change. This almost certainly reflects recent economic data, including an increase in the latest monthly reading on the unemployment rate and a stunning drop in GDP in the fourth quarter of 2012, at a time when economic growth should be accelerating after the steep recession a few years earlier.

The president’s approval rating for his handling of the economy has been consistently lower than his general approval rating, which is enjoying a post-election, post-inaugural high. As a result, the president was forced to acknowledge the obvious — that a growing economy was good for the country. On a few occasions last night, he cherry-picked a few government programs to boast of the positive returns from government spending and seemed to endorse a growing private economy, or at least small business growth.

But as in all his speeches, the president could not keep from a few predictable class-warfare attacks. Corporations are generating record profits, but wages are stagnating. Billionaires are paying lower tax rates than their customers or secretariesare. Any entitlement reform would have to come from cuts for the well-off elderly matched by tax increases on the well-off from any age group, and tax reform had to be a source for new “revenue” (taxes) for the government, not lower individual or corporate rates.

Class warfare worked in the 2012 campaign and the president believes in it. He really does think that the most successful people in the private sector do not deserve what they have accumulated, that their gains are often ill-gotten, and that much of it should be spread around. On the other hand, the parasitic crowd that lives off the expansion of the federal government and now dominates the nation’s capital and the wealthy suburban counties in Virginia and Maryland — where you can find America’s greatest concentration of high-income families — are the kind of wealthy people the president is comfortable with. They do not make anything, but they believe in the power of big government and they generally support Democrats.

As with all of Obama’s ethnic and interest group pandering, the support for Democrats is the most important factor in determining where the president’s priorities and sympathies reside. Last night, the president’s good-galaxy constellation was on full display. Barack Obama is not only the president of the United States, but the leader of the Democratic Party — a party that he has openly and proudly moved to the left since he took office.

Richard A. Baehr is the co-founder and chief political correspondent for the American Thinker. For his day job, he has been a health care consultant for many years doing planning and financial analyses for providers.

Click here to view the 35 legacy comments

Click here to hide legacy comments

35 Comments, 16 Threads

More money, more money, and more money, or should I say “investments.” How could he stand up there and lie and say this wouldn’t “cost” anything? And the mainstream media never calls him out on it. Just sickening. This from a guy who has spent $6 Trillion (with a “T”) and we’re supposed to believe him that this won’t cost us a dime? I don’t know how anybody takes this guy seriously anymore.

Today we must all be aware that protocol takes precedence over procedure. However you say – WHAT THE – what does this mean… in relation to the tabulation whereby we must once again realize that the great medical fiction story is now being rehearsed before our very eyes, in the rise of ObamaCare… indicating that only a biracial socialist man can receive..the award for medical fiction, unlike Hillary Clinton whose medical fiction doesn’t hold water. Comrades – friends, we are gathered here not only to accept on behalf of one man who without a single course in biology – has found that the world in itself seems to be in a time of the toad. This in itself is an edifice of the great glory that has gone beyond, and the intuitive feeling of the American people, based on the assumption that the intelligence not only as Mencken once said, “He who underestimates the American pubic will not go broke.” This is merely a small indication of this vast throng gathered here to once again behold and to perceive that which has gone behind and to that which might go forward into the future…we’ve got to hurdle these obstacles. This is the main deterrent upon which we have gathered our strength and all the others who say, “What the hell did that get?” – We don’t know. We’ve got to perforce support the President in his medical leadership… And as Miller once said in one of his great novels- what did he … that language is only necessary when communication is endangered. And you sit there bewildered, and Pinter who went further said “It is not the lack of communication but fear of communication.” That’s what the damn thing is it’s we fear – communication – especially medical communication. Oh – fortunately the prize has only been given to presidents – unlike the Academy Award which is given to a female and a male, indicating the derision of the human species – Damn it! But we have no paranoia, and Mr. Pynchon has attained, and has created for himself serenity, and it is only the insanity that has kept him alive in his paranoia. We speak of the organ…of the orgasm…Who the hell wrote this? And the jury has determined to give the prize to Barack Obama for his THE DEVOLUTION AND COMING EXTINCTION OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES. Now THE DEVOLUTION AND COMING EXTINCTION OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES. is a token of this man’s great genius…he told me so himself…that he could…in other words, have been more specific, but rather than to allude to the mundane, he has come to the conclusion that brevity of life is the importance of our shallow existence. God damn! Ladies and Gentlemen. To the distinguished panel on the, on the dais and to the other winners, for poetry and religion and science. The time will come when America will outlive its usefulness. Marx, either Groucho or Karl, I can’t remember which, once said that America is the opiate of the people. I say that when America outlives its usefulness, then opium…will be the opiate…Ahh that’s not a bad idea… we are going to need that and a a lot more … All right…However, I want to thank Mr. SULLIVAN , Mr William Sullivan of the AT Press, who has made it possible for you people to be here this evening to enjoy the Medical Friction Citation – the Medical Fiction Citation. THE DEVOLUTION AND COMING EXTINCTION OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES – a small contribution to a certain degree, since there are over seven billion people in the world today. 315 … million live in the United States which is a very, very small amount compared to those who will be dying elsewhere…Well, I say that you will be on the road to new horizons, for we who live in a society where sex is a commodity and a politician can become a TV personality and a quack can become a President, it’s not easy to conform if you have any morality…I, I, I said that myself many years ago…But I do want to thank the bureau…I mean the DNC committee, the organization for the $1,000 they’ve given out in free birth control…tonight they took in over $4,000,000 in contributions and I think that I have another appointment. I would like to stay here, but for the sake of brevity I, I must leave. I do want to thank you, I want to thank Mr. Rich Baehr. I want to thank Mr. Rich Baehr, who just ran through the auditorium and out a fire exit into the street, and most of all I want to thank Doctor Obama – acting President of the Unites States – and also I want to thank Professor Irwin Corey and thank you.

Sir/Ma’am, you might have a lot more readers if you used paragraphs. Your comment looked like it might be interesting, but I (and I’ll bet others) will not plow through that solid block of unsegmented print.

My liberal friends tell me that I’ll feel better if I don’t pay attention. I think they feel sorry for me because I am just not grasping the awesomeness of it all.

My Evangelical friends tell me that God has everything under control, we are in the end time and things are likely to get worse still. They also tell me that Satan is the father of all lies; well that makes our President Satan’s boy doesn’t it?

The pop culture has abandoned any sense of rationality and seems intent upon legitimizing as a rule every manner of perverseness.

I am applying for sustenance level jobs and being crowded out by gobs of applicants with graduate degrees. I have a lifetime of experience but it is no longer relevant, even though I am willing to earn less in inflation adjusted dollars than I did when entering the workforce as a sixteen year old.

It seems that all we can manage to do is make fun of Obama’s ears. Get a clue guys, he is a front man for a machine that is remaking our world. The Republicans are there to provide the illusion of choice, but ultimately we are a one party state.

The worst the Tea Party can be accused of is naiveness for believing that we still had a voice.

I watched the Youtube video of the fella who claims to know how to Enjoy the Decline. I’ve already been down that intellectual rabbit hole and still can’t figure how to assimilate and yet retain a drop of self-respect.

If you told me forty years ago that we would be forced in this lifetime to face the same choices as our Nation’s founding generation I’d have been skeptical.

JoHn, you must be about the same age as me. Been alot of places, learned alot, always made a decent living yet here I am a few weeks before my 60th birthday eagerly awaiting a call from Walmart concerning a wonderful opportunity to stock shelves on night shift and it’s temporary.

Thank goodness for Rand Paul. All we have to do is cut ONE penny from each dollar we spend! How simple is that? All these prognosticators and pundits make solving our problems difficult. Just cut ONE penny! Rand Paul or President! Or something. Seriously though, Paul didn’t say much different from Rubio, aside from disengaging internationally, only his hair looked worse. Paul/Rubio or Rubio/Paul 2016!

“Every recent public-opinion poll has suggested that the nation is more focused on the stagnating economy than on gun control, immigration, or climate change.”

That is true.

And what that means, is that we conservatives should be talking a LOT more about reviving the economy than about guns or immigration. Because that is what will resonate with non-conservative voters.

Look at PJ Media’s articles since Obama was inaugurated. There are about 3 articles on immigration for every 1 article on the economy. There are about 5 diaries on guns for every 1 article on the economy.

Obama would love for us to be obsessed with gun rights. Because gun control is not the issue on which he’s most vulnerable with Independent and moderate voters, the economy is.

Let’s have a few weeks on PJ Media where the economy and jobs–NOT guns and immigration–are the main topics of discussion.

Michelle Malkin says it best, as soon as you start talking about the economy and the debt, the Left yells squirrel and the Right follows along, they never bring the critical issues back to the table and they certainly never educate the public on how massive the debt crisis is nor the short window to address it. Are they all in on the game to devalue the dollar? Inflate our way out of debt, is that the plan? It is only a matter of time, in the end Math wins, the bills come due, interest rates will have to rise.

The Left is positioning us for a Value Added Tax, massive cuts to defense and a permanent entitlement state just like our friends across the pond. We have weak, feckless GOP leadership, a complicit media and a dumbed down electorate.

Yep, it’s the doubling back down on the “starve the beast” approach, where you cut taxes and increase deficits under Republican admins and then that traps the next Democrat in office in having to address the deficit and debt instead of expanding government.

Obama wants to guarantee childcare for every four year old (another illegal alien goodie?)and the masses applaud. Never mind the inverse relationship between past federal “investments” and quality of public education; never mind that it will create a new unfunded entitlement program, and never mind that it will put government front and center in our children’s lives.

It’s maddening that so many in this country are willing to become slaves of the state.

If a small c communist wants to delude, conceal and mask an issue, they will take an isolated incident and make it into a false example. This sleight of hand trick fools the easily duped.

Gun ownership isn’t the problem, gangbanging is the problem. Murder is a cultural disease. It doesn’t take place in some cultures as a matter of routine. In others, it does. All over the world. The “melting pot” has hot spots.

But a small c communist on a rape the Constitution spree, will take ANY isolated incident and make a “policy” based upon the fraud of the con man’s sleight of hand and distraction of the eye.

IMMIGRATION is not the problem. BORDER CRASHING is the problem. Theft of services, draining the system, overloading government services is the problem. Forced importation of crime, cross-border gang organizational activity is the problem. There are innocent victims of these crimes. Some even more innocent than the family members of the perps. Taking an isolated incident of a perp’s family member not getting a nursing job won’t bring back to life the murdered shop owner.

Global Warming is not the problem. Squandering our natural resources in order to INTENTIONALLY crush the middle class with gas prices is the problem. The small c communist wants you to ride a Chinese bicycle. Tell him to go frack himself. $5.00/gal. gas is killing the worker and the prices of goods and services. There hasn’t been global warming in a decade and a half. It’s a con. Moreover, it’s a redistributionist con in order to take money out of YOUR pockets and give the confiscated dollars to communist patted heads. But every isolated storm is the anecdotal trick up the sleeve of the sleight of hand artist.

Forced “healthcare” is not about health and even less about care. It’s a con. The communists want the state to FORCE all “standards” to be “equal” for the “classes”. So, crappy but equal…is better than great. So they say. Everyone suffers…in that phrase the small c communist smiles after the “Everyone”, because nothing else matters. A policy built on anecdotal evidence leads to anecdoting government. The ubernanny. Competition makes things better, but that’s only good if better matters. To the small c communist, it doesn’t matter one whit. That’s why communists produce nothing but crap. Because, nothing matters. Except the mirage of “equality”.

The Constitution is all about opportunity. That’s why it must be crushed. In the Drone King’s Speech, sequestration is about gutting the military. We have to be no better than the rest of the world. We must be forced to be “equal or less”.

Emphasis on the “or less”.

That’s why small c communists like the sniveling toady. The useful idiot. The parroting fool. Don’t dare think for yourself or question motives of Big Brother. The Drone King’s Speech is a truth stutter. An illusionist on stage with his trinkets dangling from his sleeve instead of hidden up them. Vacuous homilies about fraudulent plans, built upon a mountain of deceit.

CF Bleachers, I always enjoy your practical analysis of a situation. I too am from Chicago (original southsider)I have one question. How can you possibly be a Cub fan with all of that liberal mania surrounding you?

Obama has mastered the gift of deception. So blind are the American people. What part of our Constitution has this man not attacked? The man behind the mask is evil and it does not take a brilliant mind to see where this is leading.

Liberals and the mainstream media have created a monster. A creature who has the talent to make all that is bad appear good with his words. Right before our eyes Obama destroys our economy, our military and our way of life. Yet we are powerless?

Something very sinister is happening in this country and even the republicans who are elected and in power refuse to stop it. Fear is an emotion I detest but when you see your congress bow to this corruption with timid response then I would say, fear is the reason – i just can’t figure out why.

Let’s raise the “minimum wage”to $9.00 per hour. That aught to increase the gross annual USD return to Mexico by between 2 to 4 billion dollars. Sure, there may be as many as ten illegal Mexican aliens who do buy mandatory automobile insurance instead, but the vast majority will continue to drive without insurance requiring those of us who comply with the law to continue to buy uninsured motorist coverage.

If you’re wondering, like many here, why everything seems to be coming apart, and no one seems competent to stop it, the underlying reason is that dogma is ascendant today, on all sides, over good reason. With many dogmas being aggressively promulgated today, almost no one can see the forest (the underlying, larger picture of our time) for the trees (the separate dogmas, that misdirect the mind of any who cling to them):

Is it just me or has the Sierra Club radicalized recently? They were originally upper crust conservationists, and also supported quite a bit of environmentalist regulation over the last few decades becoming more and more Leftwing, but they seem to have jumped the shark into radical Lefwting environmentalism.

A quick search led me to discover the networks -great site by the way:

“This shift toward a more ambitious agenda may be properly credited to David Brower. A radical environmental activist from Berkley, California, it was Brower who, as the Sierra Club’s first executive director, in the 1950s and 60s breathed new life into the then-wilting organization, expanding it from a ragtag assortment of 2,000 nature enthusiasts, hikers and trailside conservationists into an influential organ of the environmentalist movement with an activist base of over 77,000 and financial reserves topping $3 million. Marshalling this newly gathered strength, Brower, who died in November 2000, turned the Sierra Club into an unfailing foe of development firms, portraying any new construction initiative as a fundamentally shameless effort to exploit natural resources—a tack that would later become the Sierra Club’s clarion call, and which culminated in the patently political organization’s loss of its tax-exempt status. Prior to Brower’s leadership, however, the Sierra Club’s accomplishments had been limited to blocking the construction of dams on protected land and convincing Congress to establish a national park in Washington State.” much more…http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/sierraclubactivities.html

I can’t single out the Sierra Club, but Bill McKibben has influenced the enviros into climate change fanatics. My epiphany came when I went to a Town Greening meeting. I offered the suggestion to plant long-lived trees, using a list compiled by a forestry School in the SUNY system.

I was told by the moderator that was a bad idea because 1) those trees would die in 100 years and release all their carbon, and 2) more trees would reduce the Albedo Effect. I did not bother to explain that the Albedo Effect is considered important in snow cover reflecting heat in places like Antartica, not my third of acre.

More and more of us, who used to make this a big priority, now realize that it is too late, and far more ‘warming emissions’ are coming from Britain’s peat bogs and Alaskan permafrost and cows, so why target automobiles at the cost of the economy…

As for AGW, Im pretty down on that whole thing, to put it mildly, but even if by some miracle warming is being caused by C02 emmissions from humans, (and even it it is Green House effect but not human generated) there is a pretty easy fix for that. And we have that technology today, and have had it for decades.

FWIW, the internal combustion engine has reduced human greenhouse emmissions, by replacing horses and other beasts of burden. And has allowed humanity to pull itself out of the mud. It should be celebrated as one of the all time greatest inventions for advancing human living standards and progress, not demonized as the Executioner of Gaia.

I knew that the Sierra Club supported quite a bit of Leftwing Environmentalist legislation and regulation (and for example a bunch of draconian anti-hunting advocacy), but my perception of them was as peopled by upper class snobs and thus somewhat staid, as opposed to Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

It’s a shame that all our environmental NGOs have been hijacked by communists and radicals. Im a hunter friendly, conservationist, and nature lover, who wishes to protect our world and it’s treasures in a practical manner. There is no place for me in any of these groups. The Nature Conservancy was about it, but even they have moved from common sense practicality of purchasing land to privately own and preserve to more radical politics. Shame. I should be outraged, but it isnt like the radical Left hasnt done this to a myriad of our institutions. You cant maintain a level of outrage commiserate to their transgressions upon my civilizaiton, institutions, and nation state.

The American public are as thick as pig sh1t. Just look at the polls they are dissatisfied with just about every aspect of the country, the economy, the job situation, housing, the deficit, immigration EVERYTHING yet the USURPER’s approval rating is 50+%.

How can this be when Bush was in power it was ALL his fault but now the USURPER is entering his 5th YEAR in power he is seen as not being responsible for ANYTHING in fact he is STILL Campaigning against HIMSELF.

Only a deeply dumb electorate could possibly hold such diametrically opposing views at the SAME time , everything is WRONG yet the man who has been in control for 5 YEARS has noting to do with it.